Evidence for differential rotation on a T Tauri star

Five years of photometric monitoring of the T Tauri star HBC 338 in NGC 1333 has revealed that it is a periodic variable, but the period has changed significantly with time. From 2000 to 2003, a period near 5.6 days was observed, while in the last two seasons, the dominant period is near 4.6 days. No other T Tauri star has been seen to change its period by such a large percentage. We propose a model in which a differentially rotating star is seen nearly equator-on and a high-latitude spot has gradually been replaced by a low-latitude spot. We show that this model provides an excellent fit to the observed shapes of the light curves at each epoch. The amplitude and sense of the inferred differential rotation are similar to what is seen on the Sun. This may be surprising, given the likely high degree of magnetic surface activity on the star relative to the Sun, but we note that HBC 338 is clearly an exceptional T Tauri star.